In 2013, HP TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) is upping the ante with $560,000 in cash awards up for grabs. That’s a significant increase over the $105,000 that Pwn2own 2012 offered. As opposed to the 2012 event, this year Pwn2own is not taking a points-based approach to determine the winner.
Instead, this year the first researcher to hack or pwn Google Chrome will earn $100,000 as will the first researcher to violate Microsoft IE 10 on Windows 8. Hacking Firefox will yield $60,000, while a successful Safari exploit will bring in $65,000.
“We have gone back to the individual approach mostly because there have been specific mitigations in various platforms and we want to see them tested,” said Brian Gorenc, manager, Zero Day Initiative, HP DVLabs.”We want to get more people participating and we want to fix more bugs.”
But wait there is more.
“We’re expanding the coverage beyond just Web browser,” Gorenc said.”We’re doing that because we see exploit kits going after the plugins, and they are being actively used to exploit large organizations.”
Read the full story at eSecurity Planet:
Pwn2Own 2013 Takes Aim at Browser Plugins
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.